


Spectacle

by Dance_Elle_Dance



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friendship, Internal musings, Observational, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 06:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4553952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dance_Elle_Dance/pseuds/Dance_Elle_Dance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was something intoxicating about Rachel while she morphed, and Marco could never take his eyes away from the beauty of it all. (Originally posted on 1/3/09 and 12/31/09.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spectacle

**Author's Note:**

> Re-post of my first (and only) Animorphs fanfic. It is another one that has been previously posted multiple times and I'm just moving it over here. Please enjoy the Marco/Rachel-ness!

Marco loved to watch Rachel morph.

It wasn't all-out staring, but every now and then while their little band of misfits would morph into some creature, he would find himself sneaking glances at her as she changed. Or maybe it was Marco trying to think to himself that he wasn't all-out staring at the pretty blonde, but in reality, he _was_.

There was something intoxicating about Rachel while she morphed, and Marco could never take his eyes away from the beauty of it all.

Elephant. When she morphed the large mammal, he would take notice of the way her shape ballooned to be weighed in tons instead of pounds. He would watch her smooth, peach colored skin turn leathery grey in appearance. The large trunk rolled out from her normal, cute nose. Tusks formed from her teeth as they melded together and pushed out, curving wickedly. Large, fan-like ears grew from her regular, human ones, and she grew in height to tower over his gorilla morph.

Beautiful.

Bald eagle. The powerful bird of prey. He watched as the feather patterns etched themselves onto her skin and suddenly shifted and became three-dimensional. Her teeth pushed out and out to form the hooked beak of the largest bird of prey. Feet curled into yellow talons, blonde hair disappeared and surrendered to the crown of the bald eagle's trademark white feathers.

Gorgeous.

Bugs. Gross to every girl, even to Rachel. But she knew she had to morph them, because it was her duty. Even, it seems, as she morphed into insects that he would find himself searching for the familiar blonde hair that was melding into whatever insect they had chosen. From cockroach to flea to fly. It was all equally intriguing. The extra legs sprouted. She formed an exoskeleton, mouth-parts, and wings; all were different depending on what insect she morphed.

Amazing.

Cat. Or Fluffer McKitty, to be proper - the ridiculous name Rachel and her friend Melissa had given the cat she acquired that one night. He watched in awe at the simple beauty of it all. The pattern of soft, white-and-black fur sprouted on her first. Nothing else had changed, but Marco felt the need to say...

"It's kind of weird, but also kind of pretty."

She completed the morph, while Marco watched in awe of the girl that seemed to make every morph look flawless to him. Her ears slithered up the sides of her head, fingers and toes curled inward to form paws. Her eyes enlarged and grew almond shaped, changing from blue to golden in color. A tail sprouted from her spine as she shrank down to the ground, lower and lower.

He wanted to drop that he said it was weird, and just leave it at being just one thing. Pretty.

Graceful.

Crocodile. The predator that survived hundreds of millions of years because of its efficiency at killing. Of course, Marco never really got to see it first hand. He was a seagull at the time when she morphed from the ant trapped in an air bubble to a crocodile. He could get a picture of it - though it was a strange one. An ant turning into a croc. That would be enough to weird anyone out.

But after the whole battle with Visser Three's strange javelin fish, Marco had dove in the water, demorphed to human, and then morphed into the playful dolphin with only one thing on his mind - is Rachel okay?

But, as he came swimming up to her, he smiled that dolphin smile as soon as he found that she was okay, ((Hey, it's me, Marco. I'm here to save the day!))

His heart fluttered when he heard the sound of her laughter through thought-speak, ((Just in time, Marco. Just in time.))

Survivor.

Cheetah. When they morphed the fastest land mammal on Earth, he thought he had seen everything. But this - this morph made him find one more thing that was simply beautiful about Rachel. The spots spread across her skin in an array of patterns as he felt the same thing happen to him. Yellow fur raised up on her skin. Black tear streaks were drawn down her face from the inside corners of her eyes. The golden cat eyes replaced her blue ones. Her limbs grew longer and she fell down on all fours, scratching her claws against the dirt. Her teeth grew in size and she yawned, giving Marco a full view of her deadly predator's mouth.

He felt himself surrender to the morph and fell forward on his paws as well. He was sure his morphing was nothing compared to the show that Rachel morphing always put on.

Though he, Ax, Cassie, and Rachel all looked the same, he knew which one was Rachel right away. He could always tell her apart like this, since her...aura was completely different than anyone else's on the team. It radiated from her, and he wanted to smile as she gave the command.

((Let's do it!))

Lithe.

Grizzly. By far, Marco's favorite morph to gaze at was Rachel turning from human to grizzly bear. It was like all this strength that Marco knew Rachel had was coming through and manifesting itself as a huge predator with enough power to turn over trucks and mangle anything in its way.

He would watch her morph grizzly and it was as if all her fears disappeared when she did so.

The rough, shaggy, brown fur sprouted all over her body, covering her in this coat of warm hair while her own blonde locks disappeared altogether. Her ears became rounded and moved to the top of her head. The bear's muzzle moved out of her human features. Her eyes got darker, blacker, and she grew in height to seven feet, maybe more. Sharp teeth appeared in her mouth, replacing the blunt ones of a human. She grew from a slender girl into the large mass of the grizzly bear, able to bowl over almost anything. Long fingers became claws capable of gutting a deer.

While he watched, he would be concentrating on his own powerful gorilla morph.

And, idly, he wondered if maybe she got the same wonderment out of watching him morph as he did with her.

 _Probably not,_ he decided as his hands grew twice their size and thick black hair sprouted across him like a wave. _Keep dreaming, Marco._

((You ready to do this, Marco?))

((Of course, Xena.))

((Let's do it!))

Powerful.

The grizzly was powerful, the cheetah was lithe, the crocodile was a survivor, the cat was graceful, the bugs were... _amazing?_ \- even Marco had trouble with thinking that one - the bald eagle was gorgeous, and the elephant was beautiful (something Marco never thought he'd say in his life).

But, in reality, they were all Rachel.

Every morph, every persona of every animal she had ever taken the shape of...

They were all Rachel.

They were all the blonde-haired, blue-eyed warrior that he was _in love_ with...

It was somewhat funny to him. Someone like him being in love with someone like her...they butted heads, but everything seemed to be a sort of playful bickering unless Marco really crossed the line.

But, he would forget everything negative that ever happened when he saw her - the pretty, tall model of a girl - morph into something like an elephant, without a care in the world.

And, somehow, every time Marco was caught staring - and it never failed, he almost always got caught - Rachel would ask him via private thought-speak.

((What are you staring at?))

Marco would be glad he was in morph, for she couldn't read his facial expressions that way, but always his reply would be, ((Nothing, Xena, nothing.))

But, in his head, away from everything else, away from people who could hear him, he thought the truth.

What he was staring at was, simply, _everything._


End file.
